


Better to See You With

by nattiegray



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Human Experimentation, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Hydra (Marvel), Kidnapping, Minor Character Death, Mutation, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Peter Parker-centric, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Avengers, Recovery, SHIELD, Team as Family, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2019-11-05 03:30:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17911178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nattiegray/pseuds/nattiegray
Summary: What if the spider bite had given Peter eight eyes in addition to his spider powers?The Avengers take care of Peter after SHIELD rescues him from HYDRA.





	1. Fury comes calling

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic post ever so I'm kind of nervous, but I hope you guys like it :)  
> Sorry for any typos/mistakes

The moment Tony’s cell starts to ring he has a feeling that the day is taking a turn for the worse. Nick Fury, of course. The man seems to have a sixth sense for ruining Tony’s good days. He shouts to FRIDAY to pause the blasting music and answers the call with an exasperated, “What now?”

“Stark. We have a situation.” Fury pauses, which catches Tony’s attention. There’s something different about today’s call, he can hear it in Fury’s voice. Also, the man rarely hesitates, he’s usually the definition of efficiency and indifference. “Get the team in the conference room. I’ll be there in ten.” And he hangs up before Tony can say anything. Typical.

“FRIDAY, keep track of my current experiment, would you? Let me know if anything exciting happens.”

“On it, sir.” The AI’s voice echoes in the lab.

“Oh, and tell everyone to be in the conference room, stat. And to be prepared for another SHIELD shit storm.”

* * *

 

Unsurprisingly, Fury beats all of them to the conference room, a fact that he looks especially unhappy about. He barely waits for them to settle in before jumping into his debrief.

“Several days ago, a team of SHIELD agents raided a HYDRA base. While previous missions had returned empty handed, this one was different. This time they found something… or rather, someone. Which is why you’re all here.” Fury looks tenser than usual, which is saying something.

“What d’you mean? Who’d they find?” Clint almost whines the questions. Steve places a reassuring hand on Bucky’s flesh arm, his metal fist clenched tightly. They’d come a long way from a time when simply mentioning the name HYDRA would send Bucky spiraling into a flashback, but a lot of his more painful memories are still raw.

Fury waves a hand and a photo appears on the screen behind him. It looks like a school photo and the kid in it couldn’t have been older than thirteen or fourteen. He had fluffy brown hair, big brown eyes, and a contagious radiant smile. The team shifts in their seats, they recognized the implication of the photo and wished it to not be true

Fury glances at the boy’s image before his face hardens and he turns back towards them.  “Peter Benjamin Parker. He went missing two years ago, along with his legal guardians, Ben and May Parker.”

“Wait. What happened to the kid’s parents?” Tony asks, curious, but dreading the answer.

“Died in a plane crash when he was seven. Thought to have been an accident, but now new information has surfaced that leads us to suspect HYDRA involvement.”

“What? Why’d HYDRA go after his parents?” Steve’s voice is calm, but his face reveals his concern.

“Because his parents were scientists. And brilliant ones at that. Mary and Richard Parker. Ring any bells, Stark?” Fury stares at Tony, who thinks for a moment before a look of realization dawns on his face.

“They were high ranking geneticists at Oscorp, weren’t they?”

Bruce chimes in then, “Their work was ground breaking, would have been revolutionary, but then they’d died…” Bruce trails off. The pieces were falling into place.

“We can only assume that HYDRA wanted the Parkers’ research and they refused to just hand it over, resulting in their deaths, likely a failed kidnapping attempt. Despite the fact that the Parkers’ left their work unfinished, we have reason to believe that HYDRA was able to work with what they had.” Fury gestures and a bunch of scientific notes, calculations, and formulas pop up, replacing the photo of Peter Parker. “Cross species genetics. Specifically, of human DNA with that of spiders. That’s what the Parkers were working on, and what we think HYDRA succeeded in finishing.”

“Okay, but what does this have to do with the kid?” Tony winces at how harsh his tone sounds, but he was getting impatient and seriously didn’t like where this seemed to be heading.

“Richard Parker used his own DNA for their research, basically creating a kind of genetic lock that would act as an additional obstacle for anyone trying to steal or replicate their work. Following Richard’s death, HYDRA was faced with that additional challenge, probably trying and failing to get past that barrier. Until it came to their attention that the Parkers’ had left behind a young son. They saw an opportunity and they took it.” Fury swipes at the screen and a new photo comes up.

Tony closes his eyes, trying to quell the storm brewing in his mind. He hears Clint curse and Bruce start his breathing exercise. He takes a deep breath, opens his eyes, and stares into the sunken eyes of a boy ravaged by HYDRA. A boy with _eight fucking eyes_. Tony swallows deliberately, his throat feels incredibly dry.

“Jesus, what the hell did they do to him?” It was hard to tell it was the same kid. He’s so skinny, and his hair long and greasy, hanging limply against his scalp. The boy’s exposed skin appears almost translucently pale wherever it isn’t bruised purple, dirty, bloody, or scarred. The worst part has to be the kid’s face. His baby fat is gone, making his cheekbones jut out, and his nose looks broken, but the most disturbing part is his eyes. There are eight of them, four on each side of his face, and each of the pupils are mere slits. Though he’s looking in the direction of the camera, his eyes all seem unfocused, clouded over with fear, pain, and despair. Peter’s original eyes are mostly unchanged, except for the pupil shape. Under them are two sets of smaller eyes without any white that run down the sides of his face, partially hidden by his long hair. Another set, even smaller and rounder than the others, sits just above the inside corners of his original eyes, the remainders of his eyebrows peeking out the sides. Tony can’t help but be reminded of the eyebrow spots on a Bernese mountain dog. His mouth is open slightly and a fang can be seen partially embedded into his own lip, blood staining the rest of his visible teeth.

“Successful genetic manipulation of human DNA to include spider DNA. We found all of the files HYDRA had on him. You will have access to all of them.” Even the usually emotionless Fury had been fazed by what those HYDRA monsters had done to Peter Parker.

“What do you want us to look for?” Nat said, sounding as professional as always, but her body language screams of a need to punch someone in the face, preferably someone wearing the HYDRA emblem on their chest.

“I want you to be prepared.” Fury announces, his one eye staring at each of them in turn, conveying the seriousness of what he is about to say.

“Prepare? Prepare for what?” Clint asks what they’re all thinking. His voice is choked off a little.

“We’ve given him basic medical care, but we don’t have the facilities to hold him, care for him, or train him, so we’re bringing him to you. You are to find out everything you can about his abilities, ensure his recovery, assess his risk level and mental state, and oversee any education or training you deem necessary. Peter Parker is, as of now, a ward of the Avengers.”


	2. Doctor Cho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading and all the kudos and comments! :)

     “Now, Doctor Helen Cho and her team have been working nonstop on Peter’s case. Currently, he’s being cared for at a secure SHIELD site.” Fury continues on after a brief pause, as if he hadn’t just dropped a massive bombshell on the earth’s mightiest heroes.

     “Wait! Wait, just a second.” Tony interrupts before Fury can speak again. Fury stops and levels an impatient glare at Stark. “You’re just, what, planning on dumping a seriously traumatized child here? We’re not exactly babysitters, Fury!” Tony’s joking covers his real fears. _How were they supposed to care for a child? None of them have particularly healthy family lives. And he’s not exactly the poster-boy for trauma recovery or healthy coping mechanisms. What if they fucked him up even more?_   “Who the hell decided that the Avengers are qualified for this?”

     “I decided that.” Fury states with a finality and turns away before Tony can respond. Tony stands with his mouth open, taken aback by the fact that Fury thinks they can care for this child. His eyes wander over the rest of the team. Steve and Bucky are tensely staring at Fury, Clint meets Tony eyes and shrugs. Bruce’s fidgeting is all the more apparent next to Natasha’s deadly stillness.

     Fury speaks with weighted words. “You _will_ be taking care of Peter Parker, with the full support of Dr. Cho and her team. You are the only people who can take Peter because there are simply no other options. We can’t keep him at a SHIELD operation base, and I assume that even you can see why we can’t send a traumatized and newly minted super teen to foster care, Stark.” Fury’s tone has an edge. He pulls out a small device from his jacket, presses a sequence of buttons, and a video call starts up on the screen. After two rings, the call is answered by a woman in a lab coat.

     “Avengers, meet Dr. Cho. She will be going over some of the basics of what we know about Peter so far. Doctor.” Fury nods to her before stepping aside.

     Dr. Cho adjusts her lapels as she takes in her audience. “It’s nice to meet all of you, as unfortunate the circumstances. I’m sure we’ll get to know each other quite well in the coming months, throughout Peter’s recovery process.” Cho smiles at each Avenger in the room, but there is a tightness around her eyes and mouth that make it seem more like a grimace. 

     "Tell us, Dr. Cho,” Steve swallows, bracing himself as he thinks about the photograph Fury had shown them moments before, “how’s Peter doing?”

     She sighs before speaking. “Physically, he’s improving. He has many injuries that have shown significant improvement now that we’ve got him hooked up to an IV and given him proper medical treatment. However, as I’m sure Fury made you aware, there are quite a few… complications. We’ve determined that undoing what HYDRA did to Peter is going to be extremely unlikely, not to mention seriously dangerous. The process appears to have caused Peter’s DNA to be completely fused with sections of spider DNA that, as of yet, we find ourselves unable to remove without potentially catastrophic consequences.”

     “Okay, so you’ve determined that what those bastards did to that kid is permanent. Besides the eyes and the fangs, what kind of changes are we talking about here?” Tony asks. He looks around the room, everyone is concerned about this kid. _He has the best of the best on his side now._ Tony wonders if Peter knows that yet.

     Bruce grimly cuts in. “Speaking of the eyes… how’re they… there? Modifications must have been made to his bone structure.”

     Cho nods, pursing her lips. “From our scans, it appears that Peter has undergone a drastic change in the bone structure of his face to accommodate the extra eyes.  HYRDA has notes of Peter going through a physical transformation, which is when his skeletal structure changed.  In regard to his fangs, they secrete a paralytic venom that Peter himself is immune to. As for other powers, we’re looking at abilities generally consistent with the super soldier serum program.” Dr. Cho looks at Steve and Bucky, who grip each other’s hands even tighter at the news. The words bring back so many memories for both of them. “Enhanced strength, agility, flexibility, speed. Heighted senses and super healing. A metabolism to go along with all that. We suspect his abilities may even be beyond what the super soldier serum was capable of, and the files mention some kind of sticking ability, as well as glands on his wrists that shoot organic webbing proportional in strength to a spider’s.”

     “Jesus.” Tony rubs a hand up and down his face. “And that’s only what you know right now, who knows what else they did to him.” _This poor kid._

     “Right now, we’re working on rehydration, nourishment, and treating the worst of Peter's injuries. His super healing has started to kick in, now that he’s being provided the means and time to recover. However, it does appear to have complicated some older injuries, which haven’t healed correctly, although, since they are non-life-threatening, we believe it best to leave those cases until Peter has recovered more. We are also facing a problem with pain medication and anesthesia that we are hoping you will be able to assist us with.”

     “Hold up. You mean to say you’ve been treating Peter without pain meds?” Tony can’t believe what he’s hearing. This kid was rescued from hell and is still suffering because his rescuers didn’t have medications that worked.

     “We’ve tried giving him a variety of medications, but his metabolism is too fast, even for the higher doses, and he has had a few adverse reactions. I have people working on it, night and day, but they’ve yet to make progress.” Dr. Cho winces at her own admission.

     “What about the stuff you guys use on me and Buck?” Steve tentatively chimes in.

     “We’ve tried it, but Peter started to have seizures. We had no choice but to stop administering it immediately. I am hoping that Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner will be able to adjust the super soldier medications to Peter's biology.”

     “I’d be glad to go over the formulas for the super soldier medications to find a way to modify them for Peter. Or else just find an alternative. And just Bruce is fine.” Bruce looks eager to head down to the lab and start working.

     “We’ll send you everything we’ve done so far, as well as all of Peter’s files and test results. Hopefully you’ll be able to give us some desperately needed insight.” A quiet but urgent beeping interrupts and Dr. Cho quickly checks something off camera. “Peter’s nurses have called for assistance. It’s not an emergency, but I’m needed. I will send over the files and we will discuss all this more later. Thank you all, I’m glad Peter is going to have your support.” Cho abruptly signs off.

     There is a moment of silence before Clint leans back in his chair to prop his heels up on the table. “So, Fury, when’s the kid going to get here?” Clint asks with faked nonchalance.

     “Peter will be transferred here as soon as Dr. Cho and her team have cleared him for travel, which will most likely be within the next few days. Take the time before they arrive to review all the files and prepare yourselves. Peter Parker is going to need the Avengers and he deserves to have them at their best. I will be checking in regularly on your progress. Dismissed.” They all stand and file out of the conference room.

     “C’mon, Brucie, let’s work our magic and get this kid some pain relief.” Tony rubs his hands together as he and Bruce walk to the elevator that’ll bring them to Tony’s personal labs.

     “Stark.” Natasha calls after them just as they enter the elevator. “We’ll start going over the HYDRA files. Good luck.” Tony nods and the elevator doors close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not very good with schedules, so I'll try to update whenever I can!


	3. Meeting preparations

     The next days passed quickly, as the team found themselves buried in files and research in preparation for Peter’s arrival.  The HYDRA files gave a clinical insight into the horrors Peter had experienced over the past two years, and while the SHIELD files were only slightly less disturbing, they at least showed hope for recovery as opposed to HYDRA’s hope for a compliant super soldier.

     Tony and Bruce had spent almost all of their waking moments working on medications that would be compatible with Peter’s metabolism and unique biology.  They’d had a few promising results for simple pain relievers that had been forwarded to Dr. Cho and her team immediately, although production of a surgery-level anesthetic had proven more difficult.

     As the team learned more about Peter, the nervous excitement in the tower grew as Peter’s arrival date approached.  Despite never having met the boy, each member worried for Peter.  They worried that Peter was still in pain, that he wasn’t recovering well, that the damage done by HYDRA had traumatized him beyond healing.  The updates from Dr. Cho and her SHIELD counterparts had been so equally full of small setbacks and small victories that the Avengers weren’t yet sure what to think.

* * *

     “Can we see him now?” Tony asks, bouncing in place with the slightly manic energy of someone who has gone a day (or two or three) too long without enough sleep.

     A team of SHIELD agents and doctors were bustling around the medical floor of the tower.  Peter had been settled in a private room down the hall, but Dr. Cho was leading the team into a different area.

     “Soon, Stark.”  Cho huffs out, the amusement in her tone softens her exasperation.  “I’d like to go over a few things with you before you can go meet Peter.”

     “Like what?”  Steve asks politely, ignoring Tony’s exaggerated sigh.

     “Like what to expect.  What to do, what not to do.  We don’t want to make this any more difficult for Peter than it already has been.”  Cho looks pointedly at Stark, who abruptly halts his dramatic act of impatience.

     Bruce clears his throat, drawing Cho’s attention away from an adequately chastised Tony Stark.  “Have the pain medications Tony and I sent you been working?”

     “Yes, thankfully.”  Cho looks incredibly relieved, as does everyone else in the room.  “Peter is in significantly less pain now thanks to you two.  He’s gained some weight and is no longer dangerously malnourished and dehydrated, although his food intake will continue to be closely monitored to avoid overwhelming his system before he’s ready.”

     Bucky nods along with Cho’s report.  He remembers how long it took him to adjust to eating normal and healthy amounts after living for so long on HYDRA’s absolute bare minimum diet.

     “His injuries have started to heal and he’s responding surprising well to both treatment and the presence of medical staff, which we were concerned about initially considering his abuse and torture at the hands of HYDRA’s doctors.  There’s unfortunately nothing to be done about the bones that’ve healed wrong until we have a functioning anesthetic.  The best we can do right now is to heal what we can and keep him in as little pain as possible from what we can’t.”

     The room is somber at that news and Natasha speaks up to break the lingering silence.

     “And what should we expect when we go in?”  She speaks curtly, though there is an undertone to the question that marks it as more than just her usual strategic inquiry.

     Dr. Cho pulls up a holographic screen from the Stark Industries tablet she’d been holding by her side.  It shows a video feed of a darkened room with a white hospital bed in the center.  The bed is empty.

     “Where is he?  Where’d he go?” Stark’s rising panic is tempered quickly by Cho.

     “No need to worry.”  She uses her free hand to point out a darker section right on the edge of the screen.  At first glance it looks like nothing more than darkened ceiling corner, but upon closer inspection, the shadow takes on more dimension.  “Peter appears to feel most comfortable on walls and ceilings.  A side effect of his spider instincts and senses perhaps, or maybe he feels safest out of reach.  Regardless, the distress he demonstrated when we tried to keep him on the floor, not to mention the bed, was creating problems with treatment so we’ve found ways to work around this… peculiarity.”

     “Okay, so what're we looking at?  Approach as you would a wild animal?”  Clint jokes and Natasha elbows him, prompting a muttered, “Sorry, inappropriate, just trying to lighten the mood a little, jeez.”

     “More or less, Agent Barton.”  Cho’s lips twist into a joyless grin.  “No loud noises, no sudden movements.  We keep the room as dark and quiet as possible to prevent sending him into sensory overloads.  Speak calmly, but don’t talk down to him.  Peter may still be a kid, and a traumatized one at that, but he’s smart and knows more about what’s happened to him than you might think to give him credit for.”

     Cho gestures for the Avengers to start following her out of the room and begins to lead them down the hall, presumably towards Peter.

     “He may appear twitchy, but he’s anxious and almost definitely has PTSD, so don’t be alarmed by it.  You’ve seen photos of his eyes, it’s a little more jarring in person at first.  Oh, and there might be pieces of spider webbing around the room, it might look spooky but it’s normal for him right now.”  Cho looks back at the confused faces behind her and elaborates.  “According to Peter, his webs usually come out in strings that he can control the length and, to some degree, the width of.  However, due the bone damage to his arms, wrists, and hands the webbing is much harder to control right now.  Letting it build up in his arms is dangerous, so we just have to clean up some cobwebs from time to time.”

     The team shuffles to a stop outside a door.  Dr. Cho reaches for the door and pushes it open slowly.  She steps half into the room before lowering her voice to a near whisper.  “Peter?  I have the guests we discussed last time here with me.  They'd like to meet you if you’re feeling up to it?”

     Not even Steve and Bucky with their superhuman ears can hear a response.  They exchange glances with each other and try to peer into the room around Dr. Cho’s figure in the doorway.  From their vantage point in the bright hallway the darkness in the room is cut only by the light silhouetting Cho’s shadow across the tiled floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so sorry I haven't updated in so long. Thank you all so much who read and give kudos and bookmark/subscribe! And thank you so much for all the nice comments!  
> I have 32ish chapters planned out right now for this fic and I'm going to try to work on this more and update if not more regularly than at least more often.  
> So sorry again for the wait I'll try to do better! And thanks for all your support and interest!

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work in progress and I'm really excited about it so I'm planning on continuing it (I have the whole fic generally planned out!) Thanks for reading!!!


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